At nightfall on June 22 1965 amid the turmoil of the Dominican revolution and U.S. military occupation a soldier emerged from the outskirts of a small town to report that he had just shot and killed two policemen and an outspoken Catholic priest. It s the opening scene in a mystery that forty years later compels writer J.B. MacKinnon--the priest s nephew born five years after the incident--to visit the island nation for himself. Beginning with scant official information he embarks on a chilling investigation of what many believe was a carefully plotted assassination--and on a search for the uncle he never knew. Winner of Canada s highest award for literary nonfiction Dead Man in Paradise takes MacKinnon to corners of the country far from the Caribbean paradise seen by millions of tourists; he meets with former revolutionaries and shadowy generals from the era of dictatorship family members of the slain policemen and struggling Dominicans for whom the dead priest is a martyr perhaps even a saint. Along the way he uncovers a story inseparable from the brutal history of the New World from the fallout of American invasion and from the pure longing for social justice that once touched a generation. Part memoir part travelogue part mystery thriller Dead Man in Paradise is a testament to the enduring virtues of literary journalism (The Georgia Straight).